Test report originally issued 4 August 2004
Most folders are, not surprisingly, fitted with small wheels - wheel size has quite a large effect on the size of a folded bike. There is a lot of debate about whether small wheels are an advantage or disadvantage in general cycling terms - most folder enthusiasts tend to take the view that in most circumstances they are not necessarily a disadvantage, and have some particular advantages in terms of performance, not just in terms of the size of a folded bike. There is one type of situation, though, in which I think few people would argue that the larger wheels can be an advantage - for serious off-road riding on rough surfaces, loose surfaces and mud. Here the width and diameter of the larger wheel can physically cope with the situation better, however well the tyres of the smaller wheel may be designed. This should not of course be confused with 'normal' off-road riding in more moderate conditions - small wheelers are fine on towpaths, bridleways, cycle paths and a large proportion of the more gentle off-roading which most of us indulge in.
In fact, there aren't very many large-wheeled folders around. One company which offers larger-wheeled folders is Dahon - it has 3 models with 26 inch wheels and one with 700C wheels in its current range, as well as the more familiar 16 and 20 inch wheeled models.
During the winter months early in 2004, I did a number of rides on towpaths which were in very poor condition - in fact, some were barely towpaths at all, rather the land at the side of a canal. On the worst of these, even a full suspension mountain bike, admittedly equipped with heavy road tyres rather than 'proper' knobblies, could not cope. On top of this, having decided to truncate the ride, the conventional mountain bike was not train friendly, so I had to ride all the way back on the roads - actually quite pleasant (helped now by the Schwalbe Marathon tyres), but in that situation I would very much have liked the option of taking a train which a folder would have provided.
On the basis of this experience, I started thinking about a folder for rather heavier off-road riding in the winter. I was initially drawn to the Bike Friday Pocket Gnu - a full-suspension folder with 20inch 406 wheels (well, actually it has front suspension, and a suspension seatpost, so not strictly full suspension). Unfortunately it seems that the price in the UK, even for a fairly basic specification, is what I would regard as very excessive, so I abandoned that idea. Fitting heavy tyres to the Moulton APB was not really a very good option, as, although it separates, it does not fold, and would not be much help for train assisted return (or outward) journeys, despite its other virtues. The alternatives seemed quite limited (Airnimal are about to launch in August 2004 the Rhino, but apart from one at the Cycle Show in Islington late in 2003, I had heard no more of it), and then I found the 26 inch wheeled Dahons. Even the widest, knobbliest 20 inch tyres can struggle in muddy conditions, so the idea of moving to 26 inch wheels for a bike for this particular type of riding was quite appealing, despite the reduced portability which inevitably results from larger wheels. I was in some doubt as to whether to opt for the Matrix or the Zero G - the latter is much lighter and better equipped, but more expensive, and fitted with hydraulic disc brakes rather than V-brakes, which I was inclined to consider a disadvantage, although in theory I suppose the discs should be preferred. In the end the higher spec and lower weight proved persuasive. Although the Zero G was included in the Dahon 2004 product list, it only reached the UK in June, and thus it is not until now that I have been able to try the bike and produce this brief report.
The items listed as highlights of the specification are:
Other features include a 27-speed derailleur transmission.
You can find the full spec on the Dahon web site.
This bike is quite clearly intended as a no-compromise mountain bike for serious off-road use, but with the added advantage that it can be folded. The frame design and components are all specified with this in mind. Everything in the specification suggests that it should be good for this sort of riding, and the quality of the components is high, making the price of virtually £1000 not excessive.
Above: The Dahon Zero G, after I fitted some extras and made a few modifications to suit my tastes. SQR bag mount and bar end extensions are not standard, and I drastically reduced teh length of the handlebar extension. The bike is also fitted, in this picture, with the IRC Mythos tyres, rather than the original WTN Epic Wolf tyres - see later in the report for an explanation of these changes.
The all-aluminium frame of this bike is finished in gloss black, and looks extremely smart and purposeful (see pictures above). A pot of retouching paint came with the bike - I wish other manufacturers would include this, although of course in the case of a black frame obtaining a colour match is not really difficult. For a serious mountain bike with front suspension it is quite light, bearing in mind the extra weight associated with the folding frame, though no rear suspension. Mounting points are available for fitting a rear carrier - an advantage of a hard-tail over a full suspension mountain bike. As you might expect for a bike of this kind, there aren't any provisions for conventional mudguards - riders probably manage without anything, or possibly 'crud-catcher' type guards; alternatively some rear bags, such as the Carradice SQR bags, provide protection from debris at the back. The folding mechanism consists of a substantial hinge on the main frame member, and an additional locking device on the upper frame member.
In keeping with the conventional wheel size and fairly conventional frame, the bike is available in 3 sizes. As is often the case, my height put me just on the border between the small and medium frame. I decided that this would probably make the small frame the better choice (to which Josh Hon agreed), although in the end it seems the bike actually has the medium sized frame - more of this later.
The front suspension has a long travel, and is a high quality unit suitable
for the type of use for which the bike is intended. There is no rear suspension,
which has potential advantages in some respects, and if you want more comfort,
the suggested solution is to fit a suspension seat post - typically the Thud
Buster, which would be in keeping with a bike of this quality, and is priced at
over £100. When I first rode the bike with the standard unsuspended seat post, and in
gentle conditions, with the standard big, fat, fairly low
pressure tyres on these large wheels, I did not really feel inclined to go for the
expense and weight of a suspension seat post - more on this later.
Left: Hayes disc brakes and long-travel front
suspension.
The wheels are very well made and apparently strong, and ran as near true as I could detect. The tyres fitted as standard are 20 x 1.95 WTB Epic Wolf, rated 35-65psi, and with a hefty tread across the full width. The tubes were fitted with Schraeder vales - perhaps an appropriate choice for this sort of bike, but personally I much prefer Prestas. The tyres were quite soft when the bike was delivered, and the huge WTB Epic Wolf tyres required quite a lot of work to get in enough air to get the pressure up to the maximum rating of 65psi. I'll come back to the question of tyres later.
The gearing system is fairly conventional for a bike of this type - a triple, 44/32/22, chainring and 9-speed, 11-34, rear cluster, giving an overall range of 18-99 inches. Twist grips are used on the bars.
I'd not had any experience of disc brakes before this bike, and started off sceptical, on the basis of complexity of maintenance and possible drag. The Hayes discs are a well-known make (though not all that easily available in the UK), and the advantages compared with V, or other rim, brakes should be:
First of all, I'll deal with the three essential points of contact between rider and bike.
I fitted my own preference of pedals for this sort of bike - Shimano pedals with SPD on one side and a conventional grip the other (model 324 I believe).
The handlebars are alloy, with a slight rise. They are grotesquely wide, as is usual for mountain bikes. Even with 3 inches removed from the length, they were wider than on any other bike I use, but at least they then no longer made it difficult to ride the bike on narrow paths. The stem also gave a VERY long reach - with the saddle fully forward, the reach was at least 2 inches greater than on any other bike I use, and I suffered significant lower back pain as a result - more on this later.
The standard saddle supplied with the bike is badges as an WTB, and mounts on a fairly conventional seat post (not the I-beam of the Dahon Jetstream XP I recently tested). Usually I change the saddle immediately, but just as a matter of interest, I tired riding the bike with this saddle, and found it very good indeed - perhaps not as nice as the Brooks I normally use, but I didn't feel any need to change it.
One set of bottle bosses are provided, under the main frame tube. A bottle mounted here is going to get dirty, and is not terribly accessible when riding. I mounted a cage here, and a small pump. Only a standard bottle can be fitted (not the slightly longer type), as there is no room between this and the forms for anything larger - initially I though this might be because this bike had the small frame size, but subsequent discussion indicates it is in fact a medium sized frame. Not only is the mounting a bit inaccessible, but the tight fit here means that you would find it difficult and hazardous to remove it while riding.
Cable runs are tidy, and the gear cables are sheathed for the almost whole length, so ingress of dirt etc should not be much of a problem, and the folding process, a central hinge on the frame, should not cause any damage to the cables or hydraulics.
Apart from the pedals, pump and bottle cage, the other items I fitted were bar end extensions, a computer, mirror and Carradice SQR bag mount.
Above: The old Carradice SQR Tour bag on the Zero G. This is the original prototype bag that Carradice kindly provided for me to test, so not current production specification. Note that the clearance between bag and rear tyre is fairly close - I'm very short, with short legs, so most (male) riders may have the saddle higher (at least if they ride with the saddle at the 'correct' height!). Note how dirty the bag is - the result of just one 12Km ride on a good, but damp (not wet) towpath. All my clothes had to go into the washing machine, and the bike needed a thorough clean as well. I guess this is part of the mountain bike image. Nothing to do with Dahon, or this particular model, but I would only comment that a decent tourer with mudguards would not have got me or the bike anything like as dirty.
This is a high-performance mountain bike for serious off road use, and with wheels this size you don't expect such a machine to be very compact when folded. The folded dimensions are given as 15" x 27" x 36" (38 x 68 x 91 cm), so this is quite a large package when folded.
Folding and unfolding simply involve the main hinge, which has a safety catch, and the "rebar Twistloc" on the short upper frame tube - the latter seemed to have a tendency to work loose when riding. You can additionally remove the seat post if required, and also perhaps take off the bars as well to make it a bit easier to transport. A sizeable bag is available as an extra for carrying the bike - I have not tried fitting the bike in the bag yet.
The basic fold is simple, and so can be executed quite quickly. Taking the seatpost out, or at least lowering it, is of course easy, but removal of, or turning the bars, would require the use of an allen key.
For transport in a car boot etc, this is an acceptable solution, and you could live with it for occasional train transport, though clearly not suited to daily commutes with train assistance in the rush hour.
Above: At the bottom, the main frame hinge, catch, and safety catch, and towards the top, the 'rebar' catch, largely hidden by the substantial and well routed cables
Above: The
bike folded, with the Brompton SP alongside to provide scale.
Below: The Zero G passed the 'Smart test', but
only with the handlebars removed.
There seems to be provision for a standard pannier type rack at the back, though I did not try fitting one. Given the market focus of the bike, I'd doubt that many buyers will be fitting one. I used a Carradice SQR mounting and Trax bag on the bike - quite capacious and apparently providing some protection in lieu of a rear mudguard. However, as a subsequent ride on a damp towpath vividly demonstrated, the SQR provides little protection with these large wheels, unlike the same bag on some smaller wheeled folders. I'd guess that most riders will use less than this, or no bag at all for the type of riding for which the bike seems primarily intended. However, if you opt for fitting a suspension seatpost such as a Thudbuster, you will almost certainly lose the option of fitting the SQR system. With the saddle at my height, clearance between the rear tyre and the bottom of the SQR bag was quite small - anyone requiring the saddle lower than this would not be able to use the SQR Tour or Trax bag, or any other bag this size - the slimmer version of the SQR bag might do though.
This is the difficult part ...
This is a bike quite clearly designed and specified for serious off-road riding. I don't generally go out to do this exclusively - some of my winter riding certainly requires a bike capable of handling these conditions, but even on such rides I will probably ride on the road (rather than drive) to the relevant location. In the summer months most of the conditions I am going to ride in aren't going to be those for which the bike is primarily designed, so I'm probably not the right person to be conducting such a report, and you need to bear this in mind in reading what follows.
I'm going to divide this section according to my first impressions, later impressions following some very minor customisation, and then, perhaps, later some further updates based on more experience.
The comments in this section relate to the bike as it arrived - as later comments will show, I decided on the basis of these first impressions to make some minor changes to suit my physique, style of riding, and the types of location I ride in.
This bike is quite clearly intended for serious off road use, in difficult conditions. I don't go in for off-road racing, and though I do sometimes ride wet, muddy, and difficult surfaces, I don't go out looking for mountains to ride over. At this time of year (July, in the UK), fortunately, the paths, tracks, and non-tracks I would ride over are fairly dry and not especially difficult to ride on - therefore not conditions under which the Zero G will show its greatest strengths.
Most of my initial test riding was on towpaths in dry conditions, plus some cycle tracks, my train assisted commute (once) and an early morning exercise ride (once).
Off-road, in these conditions, the bike as supplied runs along fine, although it has to be said that the Dahon Jetstream XP with narrow, high pressure tyres on 20 inch wheels was even better on the same towpaths in these conditions, as it rolled more freely and was much more agile! On road, though, the bike really felt very lethargic - the noise from the tyres on the road (something between a howl and a roar) just confirms what the legs can feel, namely that a lot of pedalling effort is being expended in going not very fast. On-road, I reckon that I was about 20% slower than I would be on most other bikes. I guess that this is primarily down to the tyres - chosen for off-road properties rather than road riding - and perhaps some slight drag from the hydraulic disc brakes. I mentioned earlier in the review that this was my first experience of hydraulic discs, and that I had some reservations, even then. The drag is only very slight - the wheels will spin when the bike is lifted, but certainly not as freely as on a more conventionally-braked bikes. It may be only a small amount of drag, but for a machine propelled by human energy, this is a real drawback - at least if you are as lacking in spare energy as I am. For blasting down steep mountain tracks, the advantage of discs is probably significant, but for my riding, the disadvantage is much greater, and that is without the issues associated with much more complex servicing. If you are a fan of hydraulic disc brakes, we'll have to agree to differ, but my first experience of them definitely confirmed my view that they are not a good thing for my sort of cycling.
In terms of comfort, the bike rode well, and on the modest test conditions the unsuspended rear end was quite acceptable, helped no doubt by the fat rear tyre. The saddle was very comfortable, rather to my surprise, as I usually don't rate the saddles supplied with bikes as being very good. The style of riding for which the bike is intended meant that it has a very long reach, and even with the saddle at its furthest forward position, I felt VERY stretched, to the extent that I was very quickly getting serious lower back pain - a shorter stem seemed likely solve this, and perhaps the small frame would have helped too, although I'm not sure I would really want the bars lower. After a towpath and road ride of about 60Km, as well as some back pain, my shoulders and neck were suffering a bit - the excellent front suspension had done its job, but the stretched riding position hadn't agreed with me. It's not that I go for a particularly exaggerated upright riding position either, as in using the Dahon Jetstream XP immediately before this bike I wanted a more extended riding position and lower bars.
To really judge this bike, I decided I would need:
I have to admit that I was rather disappointed, after the initial tests over something like 150Km, with the bike in its standard form, in terms of how well it matched my needs. The extreme discomfort of the riding position and the lethargic performance on hard off-road surfaces and roads made me wonder if I would be able to live with the bike. Based on the initial experiences, I set about making a few very minor modifications:
Sawing a bit off the end of the bars was no great problem - as it is not easy to put length back if you overdo it, I only took about 31mm off each end. This feels far more comfortable, and the bars no longer catch on things when riding along overgrown towpaths etc. Even so, the bars are still wider than any of my other bikes.
Alternative tyres proved more of a problem. Apparently there are those who think tyres make no difference - well, they do to me. If you don't think they matter, stop reading this report now. I had concluded that some of the lethargic feel of the bike must be due to the tyres, rather supported by the noise they generate on the road. Tyres depend on intended use; my judgement was that these WTB Epic Wolf tyres are primarily intended for serious off road use, to the exclusion of all other use (though I was staggered to see on one web site a reference to the fact that you could keep up with road bikes with these tyres - I can only assume the road bike would have been a Brompton fitted with Raleigh Record tyres inflated to about 15psi!!). Choice of tyres used to be a problem with some folders, due to the unusual wheel sizes, but of course with standard MTB 26 inch wheels the problem is if anything the opposite - there is too much choice. Most manufacturers and retailers use 2 classifications for the tyres - road or cross country (sometimes downhill as well). My first problem in looking for an alternative was that what I wanted was a tyre that performs well on reasonably hard off road surfaces, but which will handle muddier conditions if the need arises, and can still be ridden on the road. In addition, current finances meant that I really did not particularly want to have to buy new tyres, let alone to have to buy several sets in order to find something acceptable for my personal requirements. I put Schwalbe Marathons on the Marin East Peak some while back, and this produced a big improvement for road and hard cycle track/towpath riding. However, it does seriously compromise performance in more difficult conditions, and I was therefore reluctant either to buy another set of these, or to go to the hassle of taking them off the Marin, fit them to the Zero G, and then probably have to go through the same process in reverse later. After a lot of time studying web sites, a couple of possible tyres had been identified, but both were rather heavy - about 50% heavier than the tyres already on the bike. So I decided to use the tyres which were originally on the Marin, and which had been displaced by the Marathons. These are IRC Mythos- while I had them on the Marin, I found they rolled surprisingly freely for a knobbly tyre, and they were really quite light. The knobble pattern is quite coarse, so that you can feel it pushing, and even riding, on road, but the shape of the tyre seems to mean that surface contact on the road is only on the centre part, unlike the WTBs which seem to put a huge amount of tread down on the road. And of course as I already had the tyres, there was no cost in at least giving these tyres a try.
A quick ride around the blocks after fitting the IRCs certainly gave a subjective impression that the bike was much more lively, and that the narrower bars were more comfortable. On the other hand, the narrower contact area with the road, especially as it stands and runs on the knobbles for much of the time, made for slightly less sure footed cornering on the road (well, perhaps partly due to the fact that the more lively bike could be put into a corner faster anyway!). Of course, this did nothing for the painfully stretched riding position, so a shorter stem was now required.
The LBS is in Wolverhampton, so I decided to go there via the towpath on which I had tested the bike in its original configuration (though only riding back from Wolverhampton originally). With the changed tyres, the bike seemed to fly along much more freely, the only problem being the obvious fact that this must be due to a tail wind, which would be against me coming back. The narrower bars also made the bike appreciably more manoeuvrable. Once I arrived at the Fred Williams Cycles, I bought a 50mm stem to replace the 110mm fitted to the bike, I fitted it, and then set off back down the towpath. Imagine my surprise to find that I had NOT had a following wind on the way to Wolverhampton, if anything it must have been slightly against me, and the return journey was even easier. On the way back, though, I was not only gaining from the change of tyres to something evidently more suited to hard, dry ground, but I actually had a comfortable riding position as well, and I could now ride on the bar-end extensions.
I have only ridden with the IRCs on this bike on road a fairly short distance, but apart from the slightly reduced grip, they seem much more suitable for my requirements. On the road, they produced a subdued rumble/hum, which certainly suggests less energy being lost. The area of contact with the road seems lower, in line with the reduced rolling resistance but rather reduced grip. Perhaps the biggest drawback is that the ride is now apparently quite a lot harsher - in particular, the rear end feels much harder, and might require fitting of a suspension seatpost. Nevertheless, I'd settle for this if necessary in return for the improved performance on roads and hard off-road surfaces. A ride along a towpath when it was damp, though not really wet, still gave excellent grip and handling, though the lack of a rear mudguard and the limited protection of the SQR bag meant that both I and the bike were filthy, even in such mild conditions. I guess most riders of mountain bikes actually want to get dirty, just to prove that they have been out riding in bad conditions, even though actually the conditions were mild, and a touring bike with mudguards would have sufficed and left them, and the bike, in reasonable condition. The Zero G is entirely in keeping with all other mountain bikes in this respect.
With some adjustment of the disc brakes and bedding in, there now seems minimal drag from them, although occasionally rubbing sounds are still heard. Although this largely neutralises one of my concerns about hydraulic disc brakes, I still have reservations in terms of complexity, adjustment etc -this is a personal view, and the discs fitted on the Zero G are no better or worse than any other discs in these terms.
Folders with 26 inch wheels are quite rare, and inevitably such a bike is relatively bulky when folded, though the main folding operation is very simple and quick (if the handlebars need to be removed, however, this is an allen key job). Of course the big attraction of the big wheels for an off-road bike is that they will cope better with extreme conditions of mud, loose and very rough surfaces better than a smaller wheeled bike ever can. The Dahon Zero G is a no-holds-barred high performance off-road bike which can be folded, and the specification is entirely in accordance with this. Our tests suggest that it will work admirably in that role. However, for those who will use the bike in a more general way (or ALSO use it in a more general way), there are a few aspects of the specification of any such bike (not just the Zero G) where the effectiveness with which it does its primary job may detract from its performance in other situations. In the case of the Zero G, I found that for use on hard off-road surfaces like towpaths, bridleways and cyclepaths the original tyres on the bike made the performance extremely lethargic - I would have been unwilling even to cycle very short distances to off-road locations. A switch to another make of tyre enormously improved things, without obviously reducing the off-road potential for the sort of muddy conditions I may meet later in the year. Similarly, the enormously long reach from saddle to handlebars caused back pain for me over what I would consider quite short distances (20Km or more) on level or uphill surfaces, but a simple change to a much shorter handlebar stem gave me a perfectly reasonable riding position, and shortening the bars also made the bike more suitable for me in riding in these sort of conditions (note that I may have had a frame size slightly larger than ideal for me). I'm not a great fan of disc brakes, but once they had settled down they performed well, and there are undoubtedly advantages as well as what I perceive as some disadvantages.
The Zero G is one of Dahon's more expensive models, at £999 in the UK. It is very well equipped, and though some might consider some of the other Dahon models 'better value', considering the quality of the components fitted it is still very reasonably priced compared with offerings from other manufacturers, and bearing in mind the specification I'd rate it as a good buy, if this is the sort of folder you want.
8 August 2004
Joshua Hon of Dahon adds the following comments to our review:
"The Zero G was designed with the singular purpose of serious off-road riding by hard-core mountain bikers. The frame geometry and components were selected for this singular purpose, with no consideration made for riding on other surfaces or for riders who want something other than an aggressive, stretched out riding position. Of course, there are many riders out there who would also like to ride their mountain bike in town and for these riders we recommend a second set of wheels equipped with high pressure slicks. A shorter and higher stem is an easy way to add more comfort. [In 2005, we will have a new stem that allows easy adjustment of handlebar height] Disc brakes - after your first ride in steep, muddy, rainy conditions, you'll never be able to go back to V-brakes."
Yesterday, 28th August 2004, I passed the 650Km mark on the Zero G, and it's a bit over 2 months since it arrived. The apparently small distance covered is due to the fact that I have been using other bikes at the same time - both my own and some test bikes. In fact, the Zero G had done a bigger distance this year than any other single one of the other bikes I have been using, which in itself indicates that I've been enjoying using it.
Actually, there is not a lot to report about the bike since the original test was completed. With the reduced width of the bars, the shorter stem, and the change of tyres, it performs very nicely. The tyres in particular produce a tolerable on-road performance, but have proved more than adequate for the off-road riding I've been doing. Probably overall I have done about 50% of the distance on-road, and 50% off-road. The off-road surfaces have mostly been cycle tracks and canal towpaths, though in the case of the latter, some were actually just grass alongside a canal, not really a towpath. Surface conditions in summer are not particularly testing, but after an exceptionally wet August, I have had to tackle a few muddy, or at least soft, surfaces. For a high-performance mountain bike like the Zero G this has to be rated as pretty easy going, but there have been quite a few occasions where I have been able to continue riding on the Zero G where on any of my other folders I would have had to get off, and indeed might not have attempted to do the ride at all. In fact the Zero G has encouraged me to explore a number of routes which I have never tried before, even though they are relatively local - I rode back from Kingsbury Water Park via canal towpath earlier in the week (part of this would not have been practical on any of my other folders), and yesterday I used mostly canal towpaths to ride to Bewdley and back to visit the Severn Valley Railway.
Although I found the Zero G handled the rougher surfaces well, I decided that for my comfort I would fit a suspension seat post (the Zero G is a 'hardtail' - front suspension, but no rear suspension). Joshua Hon had suggested I try a 'Thudbuster', but in the end I decided to fit a USE XCR Carbon - the Thudbuster looked as though it might be a problem with the type of luggage I have fitted, and it moves back as well as down as the suspension operates, and although the riding position is now comfortable with the shorter stem, I did not want to increase the reach. The Use is impressively light - it only added about 140gm (5 ounces) to the weight of the bike. I opted for the soft spring version - I'm a shade over the suggested weight range for this version, but as I ride quite gently, this seemed more likely to be appropriate. It's only been fitted for a few days, but it does improve the ride on some of the rougher surfaces, and does not have any apparent negative effects. I'm not keen on the saddle fixing system, though, as it is awkward to adjust the angle.
About 10 days ago, the rear brake lever became reluctant to return after applying the brake, and actually needed pushing back to release the brake fully. I tried lubricating the appropriate parts, but with no effect. I was discouraged from further investigation as the lever is of course the master cylinder of the hydraulic system, and is quite complex, and any work would probably necessitate bleeding the brakes. Eventually I summoned up the courage to examine it. I found the pivot where the actuation lever fits into the hand lever was sticky - lubrication had not cleared this, and as the pivot only moves a very small amount, it was not evident that there was a problem here until I'd dismantled it. Cleaning and re-lubricating this pivot solved the problem, but as I'd taken the hose off, I had to bleed the system. The whole job took about 2 hours. To me, one of the nice things about bikes is that they are relatively simple - not much to go wrong, and relatively easy to fix if there is a problem. Hydraulics go against this principle, and this experience served to reinforce my lack of enthusiasm for hydraulic disc brakes on a bike - though they perform very well, and no doubt have advantages in serious off-road racing, especially down hill. I've decided I shall fit mechanical discs instead when it next becomes necessary to do any more work on them.
The lack of mudguards is still a pain in wet and muddy conditions - even quite moderate amounts of rainfall a few days before can result in a muddy back after a ride on a towpath. The Carradice SQR bag at the back does not serve to catch much of this with 26 inch wheels, though I find it useful in this respect with smaller-wheeled folders. As it doesn't help to catch mud, and is a bit heavy, I've been experimenting with other bags to try to find something that meets my requirements - ideally about 10 litres capacity (which includes space for some clothing in the sort of conditions where it's difficult to decide how hot or cold it will be), separate pockets for tools and a spare tube, with a mount for a rear light, preferably some form of quick release fitting, and an overall weight (empty) of 600gm (21 ounces) or less. So far I haven't found quite what I'm looking for - I'll be posting an article on this subject on the web site in the not too distant future.
So overall I remain very pleased with the Zero G - I certainly don't exploit its full off-road potential, but it's encouraged me to do rides which I would not have done without it, and it performs very well. I haven't folded it in anger yet, but it is certainly a major advantage to know that I to do this if for any reason I decide to use train assistance for the return journey.
29 August 2004
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Last updated 29 August 2004